sound the bugle now (play it just for me)
by eponnia
Summary: 1860s AU. When Union soldier Captain Peeta Mellark is shot just outside his hometown of Panem, Georgia during the American Civil War, a girl he hasn't seen in three years - the doctor's daughter, Katniss Everdeen - saves his life. [Bookverse Everlark]
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've always adored American Civil War AUs for** _ **The Hunger Games**_ **(that and the Olympics are literally the most perfect AUs for this series) and now I've finally written my own. I'd recommend the fantastic** _ **Knot Your Fingers Through Mine**_ **by monroeslittle if you want another Everlark American Civil War AU.**

 **The title is from "Sound the Bugle" by Bryan Adams in** _ **Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron**_ **.**

* * *

This is it. This is how he will die.

Captain Peeta Mellark blinks blearily in the fog-streaked dawn, unwillingly dragged back into consciousness by the pain gripping his shattered left knee. The smell of death nearly overwhelms him as blood drips from his temple into his hair, his kepi cap lost hours before in the battle. In the light of the rising sun through the thick mist, he can make out the shapes of his comrades' bodies in the mud and snow beside him, and he turns his head only to look into the blank eyes of Finnick O'Dair, the friendly Irish major's throat slashed open.

Peeta almost retches then and there, but he hears a twig snap and immediately closes his eyes, breathing as shallowly as he can. His hometown is not a mile through the woods in which he lays, and he knows being recognized wearing a Union uniform in Panem, Georgia is almost more dangerous than being discovered by Confederates in any other state while in blue. Because these people, above all others, see him as betraying not only the South, but his neighbors as well, and they won't treat him kindly for it.

But he only hears the light footsteps of one person, not the heavy footfalls of soldiers. There's a curious part of him that wants to know why a Confederate is walking among the Union dead, but knows opening his eyes will surely end his life. The footsteps get closer, and he relaxes every muscle in his body as he hears the person start to go through Finnick's uniform, pulling his canteen from his body and his Springfield rifle from his stiff fingers. Disgusted, Peeta lays in the mud in silence until a female voice gasps his name.

He almost, _almost_ opens his eyes, but tries to lay as still as possible as the woman scrambles through the snow and mud towards him. She kneels beside him, calloused fingertips finding the pulse on his neck, and her vaguely familiar voice breathes his name again. As she checks the cut on his forehead with a gentle hand, he realizes who the voice belongs to. This time he can't help but open his eyes; it's been three years since he's heard her speak, and if he's going to die, he wants to see her one last time.

"Miss Everdeen?" he croaks.

Katniss stares back at him in shock.

"Mr. Mellark?" she repeats, as if saying his name over and over will confirm that he is not a figment of her imagination.

He manages a smile. "This is not how I hoped to see you again after so long."

"You are with the Union," she says, looking down at his uniform, but her voice holds no disdain. He hears even a faint hint of wonder in her tone, and he finds himself pondering if she won't call someone to shoot him after all. She starts to say something else, but they both look up as arguing carries through the thick trees; Peeta instinctively knows the owners of those voices will not be so kind to him.

Setting her jaw, Katniss whispers, "Take off your coat."

"What?"

"If you want to live," she hisses, " _take off your coat_."

Peeta manages to get a sitting position, vision blurring from the pain in even the smallest movement of his left leg, as she goes to the closest Confederate corpse and, with no minor difficulty, strips the body of its gray coat. Peeta, his ears ringing as his mutilated left knee burns, pull off his canteen strap from across his chest, peels off his soaked blue coat, and throws on the garment Katniss thrusts at him. She grabs an Enfield rifle without a bayonet from another Confederate corpse and shoves it in his hands as the bushes and trees reveal two gray-clad soldiers.

"What do we have here?" the younger man with broad shoulders asks in the familiar drawl of Peeta's home state.

"Good evening," says the taller and older man with a close-cropped black beard, touching the brim of his gray kepi.

"Good evening, gentlemen," Peeta replies as evenly as he can manage.

"Your leg looks pretty busted," the younger man comments.

"It is, sir." Peeta nods grimly. "All because of those Billy Yanks." The younger Confederate standing over him spits into the snow at the mention of Northerners.

"Well, First Lieutenant Cato," the dark-haired man says after a moment, "we can't let an honest Southern boy who served his country lay in the mud, can we?"

"No, Colonel Crane."

"Help him stand."

"Yes, sir."

As Cato roughly hauls Peeta up, Crane holds out a hand to Katniss. "If I may say so, ma'am," he begins as he helps her stand, "you are a testament to the strength of Southern women in this great Confederacy of ours."

Katniss manages a smile. "Thank you, sir."

"You are very brave to come to find your husband in a battlefield."

"I wrote to her, sir," Peeta manages as he tries to rest all of his weight on his good leg, using the Enfield rifle as a crutch. "I told her I was going to be in the area, and when I didn't come home after the fighting stopped, she came looking for me."

Crane smiles. "What's your name, son?"

"Major Finnick O'Dair."

"Well, Major O'Dair," Crane says, "let's get you to a hospital."

"That's not necessary," Katniss interjects. "My mother is a nurse. She can look at my husband's wound." Crane exchanges a glance with Cato, and Katniss adds, "The doctors at the hospital are busy enough as it is."

"If you say so, Mrs. O'Dair," the colonel finally says, and offers his arm to Katniss. "Don't be too rough, lieutenant," he tells Cato. "His leg can't-" Crane stops, staring at Peeta's injury. "Major, may I ask why you are wearing Union trousers?"

"I stole them from a Union soldier's corpse, sir," Peeta invents quickly. "My old Confederate trousers were torn, and it takes too long to order a new pair from the supply trains."

"I have heard of soldiers stealing a dead man's boots, but never trousers." Crane gives Peeta a hard look. "You don't look Irish, Major O'Dair."

"Not every Irishman has red hair, sir."

Cato glares at Peeta. "You don't sound Irish, either."

"My family has been in Georgia ever since the turn of the century."

"There's something not right here, Major O'Dair," Crane says, and Peeta glances at Katniss.

As Crane raises his pistol, Katniss lunges forward as Peeta shoves the muzzle of the Enfield under Cato's jaw and fires.

As Peeta and a dead Cato collapse, Katniss pushes Crane's pistol aside, and the bullet hits a tree. She knees Crane in the groin, and he doubles over as she tries to wrestle the gun from him. Knee twisted even further, Peeta grits his teeth and scrambles to aim the Enfield as a red-faced Crane grabs Katniss by the hair. When the colonel aims his pistol at her temple as she claws at his face, Peeta prays the rifle has one more bullet and shoots the Confederate in the neck. Katniss steps back as Crane falls in a twitching heap. Before Peeta can move, she takes the pistol from Crane's limp hand and shoots the colonel between the eyes.

Katniss' chest is heaving beneath her dress, dark hair falling in her face as she lowers Crane's pistol. "We should go before someone investigates."

She helps Peeta stand, letting him lean on her as he uses the Enfield as a crutch. He hobbles with her through the thick trees for what feels like an eternity, drawing in ragged gasps as they finally reach the back door of what Peeta recognizes as the Everdeen house. It looks even more rundown than when he had last seen it three years prior, the roof sagging with windows cracked and bullet holes peppering the walls.

"Lean here," Katniss says under her breath. Peeta complies as she knocks quietly on the door, but no one answers. She raps again on the wood, more insistently, and calls out as loudly as she dares. "Mother! Prim!"

Just as Peeta thinks he might pass out right then and there, they hear the deadbolt clatter and the door finally opens to reveal Mrs. Everdeen. Without a word, she helps her daughter assist Peeta over the threshold.

"Mr. Mellark!" Primrose says from the stairs, and follows them as her mother and sister help Peeta onto the kitchen table.

"Bring the lantern over, Prim," Katniss says, and the fair-haired girl obeys.

"He may have frostbite," Mrs. Everdeen says after inspecting the wound. "And that knee does not look good."

"Can you save my leg?" Peeta asks in a strained voice.

Mrs. Everdeen pauses. "Prim, get the bottle of whiskey." As Prim hurries off, Mrs. Everdeen avoids eye contact with Peeta.

"Katniss, find your father's axe."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Peeta wakes a few hours later on a cot in the parlor to more pain and a cool cloth on his forehead.

His eyes flutter open to see Katniss leaning over him. She reaches to adjust the bandage around his thigh – the only remains of his left leg – but even the faintest touch makes him groan in agony.

"You are lucky my mother was here tonight," she says softly. "She works all day in the local hospital. If I had brought you had here at nearly any other time, she would have been gone."

"Is she here now?" Peeta asks, and Katniss shakes her head. "I want to thank her when she returns," he adds. "I have heard with these things it is the leg or the life, and I thank the Lord I am still here talking to you."

She focuses on his bandages again.

"And I want to thank _you_ ," he continues quietly. "You risked your own life for mine." When she doesn't reply, he asks, "Why?"

Katniss picks at her nails before finally murmuring, "Because you did the same for me, before the war." She stands and starts to walk away, but stops and looks back at him over her shoulder. "Now we are even."

She strides out of the parlor.

* * *

That afternoon, Katniss has just come home from hunting and Peeta is telling Prim about seeing President Lincoln riding by when someone pounds on the back door. Leaving the Enfield with Peeta and taking Crane's pistol to the door, Katniss only unlocks the deadbolt when the voice from the outside tells her he is Gale Hawthorne.

Peeta recognizes Katniss' close friend from school, but they had never talked beyond the briefest of conversations. Now, Peeta watches as a worried Gale steps close to Katniss, looking into her eyes and inquiring after her safety. In the middle of reciting how Madge Undersee had seen Katniss bring a Confederate soldier into her house, Gale meets Peeta's gaze through the cracked-open door, and pulls out his revolver.

"Gale, _no_!" Katniss shouts hoarsely as her friend strides from the kitchen into the parlor.

"What possessed you to let–" Gale stops by the cot, but does not lower the revolver. "What the hell are you doing here, Mellark?"

"I beg your pardon?" Peeta replies, keeping his voice steady even as his gut tightens.

Gale looks down at Peeta's legs, the left with only a third remaining, and they meet each other's gaze. "I thought you were with the Union. Didn't your family–"

"Disown me because of it?" Peeta supplies. "Yes. And I _am_ with the Union. I only wear a Confederate coat to stay alive. And if it were not for the Everdeens, I would surely be dead."

"You could be lying." Gale keeps the revolver aimed between Peeta's eyes. "How do we know the moment you are healed you are not going off to tell Granny Lee everything?"

"Everything?" Immediately Peeta knows he has misspoken, but then Katniss shoves her way between the cot and Gale, pushing her friend's gun away.

"Enough!" She juts her chin out and plants her hands on her bony hips. "I did not risk my life and my family's lives just for you to shoot Mr. Mellark in my parlor!"

"Why are you defending him?" Gale demands. "He could be a spy!"

" _He saved my life_!"

The room quiets, and Katniss quietly adds, "And now I'm saving his from you."

Gale stares at her for a long moment, and finally returns his gun to his holster. "If anything happens, you know where to find me."

The back door slams on his way out.

* * *

A few days later, Peeta is teaching Prim and Mrs. Everdeen to play beggar-my-neighbor with a battered deck of cards as snow falls outside the window. Katniss, who has been watching them through the doorway as she cleans the Enfield in the kitchen, gets up to throw fuel into the stove.

"Wait!" Prim suddenly cries when Katniss grabs a piece of paper from the table and crumples it in her fist.

"What?" Katniss asks as her sister jumps up from her chair.

"That is the note Rory gave me about the Christmas bazaar!"

"The Christmas bazaar?" Mrs. Everdeen repeats as Prim carefully smooths out the wrinkled paper.

"Mr. Flickerman is throwing a charity ball in Capitol Hall," the blonde girl explains. "Not _on_ Christmas, but in the spirit of the holiday. It is all to support the Confederate troops."

"Then we will shall attend," Mrs. Everdeen says.

"Mother," Katniss says, a frustrated edge to her tone, "why would we willingly go where General Snow is? We all know he _will_ be there."

"Because if we do not attend," Mrs. Everdeen says plainly, "he will send someone to check on us. And we cannot have that." She lays down a card on the deck and leans towards Peeta. "Now is it four cards for a king, or three, Mr. Mellark?"

* * *

A week later, Peeta is halfway through the old copy of _Notre-Dame de Paris_ by Victor Hugo that Prim lent him when Katniss walks down the stairs into the parlor.

She is stunning in a long-sleeved burgundy velvet gown, the buttons running down the bodice framed by black piping with a small gold holly leaf brooch at the collar. Short white lace gloves cover her calloused hands, fingers holding the brim of a bonnet as the ribbons trail down the side of her generous skirt, and her dark hair is caught up in a much more elaborate style than her usual pinned braid.

"Do you need anything before we leave, Mr. Mellark?"

"I am content, thank you." Peeta smiles. "Have a good time."

She sighs. "If Miss Trinket hadn't made me wear Miss Undersee's dress, I might enjoy myself this evening."

"You look beautiful, Miss Everdeen."

She turns red and looks down to pick at the buttons. "I can hardly breathe in this blasted thing."

* * *

An hour later, he is almost done with the book when gunshots rings out and the faint music from Capitol Hall stops.

Setting _Notre-Dame de Paris_ down, Peeta blows out the single candle - the only light in the entire house besides the closed stove – as distant screams pierce the night. He shrugs on the Confederate coat, grabbing the cane Mrs. Everdeen had lent him, and starts to hobble to the back door, the remains of his left leg throbbing. He glances out the window, relief washing over him as he sees heavy snow falling, and unlocks the deadbolt. Peeta curses at the blast of freezing air, but losing a finger or two from frostbite is better than being discovered by General Snow and putting the Everdeens in danger.

He is soaked by the time he reaches the woods, but is grateful for the thick snowflakes to cover his tracks, and he builds a makeshift shelter out of pine branches to wait out the night as screams echo through the trees. Every fiber of his being wants to go back to the house and ensure Katniss and her family's safety as he sees an orange glow light the night sky above the trees.

But he knows being discovered in the vicinity of the Everdeens by the wrong people will get them all shot on sight.

* * *

Peeta can hardly move when dawn arrives, but sends up a prayer of thanks that he woke at all.

This time, there is nothing to conceal his steps, and he has to push through a foot of snow. He is exhausted and stiff by the time he reaches the back door, but at least the house is still standing; as he knocks, he prays that the door opens to a friendly face.

Peeta can immediately tell something is wrong when Mrs. Everdeen appears.

"Come in," Mrs. Everdeen says dully, and he follows her into the blissfully warm house to see the kitchen in chaos and a thin body covered by a sheet on the table.

"We were at the bazaar," Mrs. Everdeen explains in a pale voice as the color drains from Peeta's face. "There were gunshots outside, and then someone yelled fire…" She swallows hard. "Katniss and Gale got us out through the crowd." Mrs. Everdeen draws in a ragged breath. "And then Prim went back into Capitol Hall."

"Why?"

"To save someone else? I don't know. Katniss wanted to go after her, but Gale said Katniss' long skirt would go up in flames in a minute, and he had his brother and Mrs. Hawthorne hold her back. Someone was still shooting, and Katniss found us all a safe place to hide. The minute Gale came out carrying Prim, we came back here. And then General Snow's soldiers came to the house looking for you."

It takes Mrs. Everdeen a moment to continue. "Prim died in Katniss' arms from her burns and the smoke in her lungs not long after they left." She meets his gaze. "Katniss thinks she lost both you and Prim last night. Yet here you are."

"I did not want you to be killed for harboring me."

Mrs. Everdeen walks slowly to the front door. "Katniss is at Mr. Abernathy's house. Stay here, Mr. Mellark, and I'll fetch her." She stops with her hand on the doorknob and looks back at Peeta. "She needs you."

After she leaves, he rights a chair and sits with his back to Prim's body. Half an hour later, he hears the front door finally open, and he looks over his shoulder as the footsteps draw closer to the kitchen.

"Mr. Mellark?"

He stands shakily with help of his cane as Katniss walks into the room. Face blotchy, hair in disarray, and red dress torn, her steps falter as she passes the table. She stares at Prim's body before sinking to her knees and gasping out a broken sob.

Peeta hobbles over and, with some difficulty, sits down on the floor beside her. Katniss leans against him, tears streaking her cheeks, and he wraps an arm around her shoulders.

"I thought you were _dead_ ," she rasps.

"I could not have you die for my sake."

She moves back to look into his eyes with her bloodshot gray ones. "I have proved that I am willing to die for you." Gripping a fistful of his Confederate coat, she adds in a hoarse voice, "Never scare me like that again. Never leave me again. I cannot-"

She breaks off, tears welling in her eyes again. Peeta reaches up to wipe away the first one to escape down her cheek with his thumb as her lips trembles. "I promise."

Her shaky fingers find his coat collar. "First my father died in a field hospital in this damn war, and now Prim…" Her voice trembles. "I cannot survive any more deaths. _I cannot survive losing you_."

"I will not leave," he swears.

But he cannot promise to live forever, and wordlessly lets her press her forehead against his chest as her shoulders shake.

* * *

The next night after the bazaar, Peeta wakes to Katniss screaming in the parlor.

Leg aching, he scrambles up from the cot in the kitchen - moved so Katniss could sleep downstairs instead of the room she had once shared with Prim - and clatters into the parlor as Mrs. Everdeen hurries down the stairs. When Peeta lights the kerosene lamp, he sees a wild-eyes Katniss, nightgown damp with sweat and gasps sounding almost like sobs as she reclines on the sofa under a quilt. She quiets as she sees her mother and Peeta, chest heaving as she rasps, "Sorry."

"Are you alright?" Mrs. Everdeen asks.

Her daughter nods as she shifts into a sitting position. "It was just a nightmare."

"Do you need anything?"

Katniss shakes her head, wrapping her arms around her knees, and Mrs. Everdeen reaches out to brush a lock of dark hair behind her daughter's ear. When Katniss leans away, her mother says, "Sleep well, then," and turns away. As Mrs. Everdeen ascends the stairs, Peeta reaches to turn out the kerosene lamp, but stops at Katniss' voice.

"Mr. Mellark?"

"Yes?"

She waits a long moment before speaking. "When the war started, and you came by before leaving to join the Union…" She pauses. "You said before you left, you had to tell me you loved me before you died on some battlefield." Katniss finally meets his gaze, and something in his chest tightens. "I could not promise anything then. Supporting the Union in this town does not make life secure."

"I understand."

"With the war still going on…" She falters, and he dares to hope until she says, "I do not know what I feel."

His heart sinks, but he nods. "I apologize. It was unfair of me to put so much on you." When she doesn't reply, he gives her a simple smile and offers, "Good night, Miss Everdeen."

She suddenly looks like she wants him to stay, and he waits, but she only murmurs, "Good night, Mr. Mellark."

* * *

A week later, Peeta is stting in the parlor with Katniss when he clears his throat.

"Miss Everdeen?"

She looks up from staring blankly at a page of a book she hasn't been reading. "Mr. Mellark."

"I know you did not want to celebrate today. However," he says, holding out a small, thin package, "I wanted to give you this. Merry Christmas."

Katniss takes the packet of primrose seeds, gray eyes wide at the yellow flowers painted on the paper. Peeta uses his cane to stand, but just as he reaches the kitchen, he hears rustling skirts and footsteps. When he turns, his arms are suddenly full with Katniss.

"Thank you, Peeta," she murmurs into his shirt as she embraces him tightly. She steps back, gazing into his eyes with a searching look.

"You are welcome, Katniss," he replies sincerely, and the corner of her mouth twitches up into her first smile since the night of the bazaar. He then moves slowly, taking her hand gently in his as he leans on his cane. To his surprise, she does not pull her hand away.

Instead, she weaves her fingers through his.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is my eightieth work posted on fanfiction. net, but only my thirty-seventh on archiveofourown. Maybe by 2017 or 2018, I'll get to one hundred.**


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